The invention relates to cut resistant pneumatic tires, especially off-the-road tires and heavy duty off-the-road tires having typically 1 to 36 carcass plies and 6 belts (in a radial ply tire) or 4 breakers (in a bias ply tire), and one to four sets of beads.
Heavy duty off-the-road tires, because of the nature of their use, are exposed to cutting and delamination caused by sharp rocks and uneven terrain. In the prior art, this problem was sometimes addressed by including wire fragments embedded in the rubber of the tread and sidewalls of such tires. Although shredded wire works well to prevent cut growth, it may be relatively expensive (brass coated wire works best), and is very difficult to handle and process into rubber. Shredded wire tends to jam the processing equipment and causes accelerated wear of the processing equipment.
This problem was addressed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/600,380, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,173,136, issued Dec. 22, 1992, by incorporating RFL coated monofilament fibers into the tread rubber and sidewall rubber of mining tires.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cut resistant tire, which is easier to process and to build than a tire reinforced with shredded wire.
Other objects of the invention will be apparent from the following specification and claims.